In the Blink of an Eye
by ilovetvalot
Summary: A case goes wrong for Derek and Emily.


_**Author's Note: **We're excited to announce our Round 3 of our Fanfic Challenge on Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. The __**Dealer's Choice August Challenge**__ is a great way to stretch your writing muscles! Simply suggest a pairing from the seven main Criminal Minds characters and list three different things to include in the story. (Example: You request Hotch/Emily and your prompts are a starry night, a cashmere blanket and a bottle of Merlot.) Your suggestion will be assigned to another author, and you'll receive a similar suggestion. Your final story must include your assigned pairing and must include at least two of the three prompts you were given in some capacity. Stories can be short or long, romantic or friendship, angst or humor…and anything else in between! Sign ups will continue through August 2, assignments will be given on August 3, and stories are due by August 31! Please visit the forum or shoot us a PM if you are interested in participating. We'd love to have you! And please visit the forum to read our latest interviews with the lovely **KricketWilliams **and the talented **Ahmoselnarus**! ! Also, we have began a discussion thread for our fellow author, **Angel N Darkness**, who was in a serious car accident on Sunday. Please say a prayer for her hasty recovery and visit the thread to leave your best wishes. Updates on her condition will be posted there as we receive them._

**Gunpowder and Lead**

The acrid smell of gunpowder and lead filled her nostrils at the exact moment she knew she was hit. Closing her eyes as her body made impact with the roughly hewn wooden floor beneath her, she felt a wooden plank scrape against her cheek as her head bounced wildly off the ground. And in that moment, she had an afterthought that that would make an ugly mark for people to see at her visitation. Yes, she took a bullet in the chest...but look at her poor face, her mother would say.

She wanted to laugh. Strange. Must be the blood loss.

"Fuck! Prentiss!" she heard Morgan's panicked voice yell, his words piercing through the haze that had suddenly enveloped normally ordered mind. "Agent, down! We've got an agent down in the field!" she heard his frantic voice shouting above the continued gunfire.

The noise ceased almost as quickly as it had began. Forcing her eyes open, she blinked rapidly as the lingering smoke stung her eyes. She heard pounding footsteps approaching and instinctively she knew it was him.

"Prentiss!" he called hoarsely, falling to his knees beside her. "Em, look at me, baby!"

Forcing her eyes to focus on Derek's terrified face, the smoke floating around his head, she asked hoarsely, "Unsub?"

"He's dead, Sweetheart. Exactly where the fuck he belongs. You just keep those pretty brown eyes focused on me, okay?"

Dead, Emily thought with a grim satisfaction, that thought momentarily outweighing the overwhelming pain. After shooting her, it was the least the bastard could do. "Hurts," she mumbled, her tongue thick in her mouth.

"Hell, yeah, it hurts. You took two in the vest and one in the shoulder, Baby. But you're gonna be okay. You just keep breathing for me, all right," Derek ordered, smoothing her hair back with a shaking hand. Dropping his gaze back to her, he asked harshly, "What the fuck are you trying to do to me, Prentiss? What the hell were you thinking, angel?"

"He had the little girl in his lined up in his sites. I had to move," Emily answered with difficulty, the words clear in her mind, but somehow coming out garbled. She knew her tongue worked just a minute earlier, hadn't it?

"You should have waited for me," Derek whispered, stroking her cheek.

"C-couldn't," Emily forced out as a wave of white hot pain washed over her as somebody moved her shoulder. "No time," she bit out, attempting to focus on his face again as parts of her vision faded to black.

"There's always time," Derek insisted. "You scared the shit out of me, Beautiful," he said huskily. "And Hotch is gonna have both our asses. We promised him this wouldn't happen."

"Proved him wrong," Emily said with a small shake of her head, regretting the movement immediately. "You stayed focused," she moaned, grimacing as hands shifted her onto a gurney.

"Yeah. I was real focused when I put two in the head of the man that shot you," Derek growled, grabbing her hand and holding it tightly as they moved toward the waiting ambulance.

"Justifiable kill," Emily wheezed, struggling to breathe as her world shifted, her ribs suddenly tightening against her lungs.

Frowning Derek squeezed her hand. "C'mon, baby. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Like we learned when you had the baby. It's the same concept."

"What happened the last time you tried to tell me how to breathe?" Emily panted as a paramedic inserted an IV in her arm and the ambulance began to roll.

"Not worried about it," Derek said with a forced smile, crouching next to her gurney. "I'm wearing a cup today, remember?" Watching as her eyelids fluttered closed, Derek yelled, sheer panic flooding his words, "Emily!"

"It's okay, sir. She just gave in to the drugs. She's going to be fine," a voice across from him assured professionally. "Can you give me the patient's name, sir."

Swallowing deeply as he held tightly to her suddenly slack hand, Derek nodded. "Her name is Emily Prentiss-Morgan. She's my wife," he whispered, drawing in a deep breath as he added, "and my life."

And as the paramedic stared into his patient's husband's tormented eyes, it was painfully obvious that the man had never spoken truer words.

_**finis**_


End file.
